Why doesn't it appear to be possible to have multiple pinned taskbar buttons for multiple Chrome profiles?

Question

I have two Chrome profiles set up using the --user-data-dir=<path> argument and I want to create two separate pinned task bar buttons for these two profiles (this is obviously on Windows 7). However, whatever I try, whenever I launch the second shortcut, Windows again merges them into a single (grouped) button.

I tried all the tricks I could find mentioned on the net (e.g. here):

• pinning a shortcut to some other program and then modifying it to point to the second profile
• creating hard links to chrome.exe (using mklink /H) and pinning those
• creating an actual copy of chrome.exe and pinning that

I also looked into the approaches of using batch files or task scheduler links but while those do indeed allow me to have a persistent shortcut to the second profile on the taskbar, once I launch it the actual launched Chrome window gets grouped together with the first instance again.

However, ...

There appears to be no problem pinning any number of web pages to the task bar as "app shortcuts" so I'm not yet willing to let this go... But how does this work? How are these "app shortcuts" different (to Windows) from the shortcuts I created so far? Can I somewhere define a new application ID that makes the shortcut distinct from the others and thus prevents grouping?

(From what I've read it seems some of the tips mentioned above actually used to work at some point. The fact that they no longer do, might be due to Win 7 SP1 or the version of Chrome I'm using (13.0.782.112 as of this writing))

Answer 1

I tried all the tricks I could find mentioned on the net…

once I launch it [sic] the actual launched Chrome window gets grouped together with the first instance again.

That’s the problem. With older apps, the hacks you mention will work. However, because Chrome has built-in support for Windows 7 jump-lists, as soon as you run it, any of your hacks suddenly go bye-bye.

(I just tried it myself and the manually created shortcut was deleted—without notice!)

Unfortunately it’s a case of un-progress. Your best bet is to file a bug report and “star” this issue that is at the basis of the problem (hbono said they started working on fixing it over two years ago).

Answer 2

It's a registry setting. Taskbar groups programs based on a Registry setting that each program sets.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd378460(v=vs.85).aspx

edit:

A tool to try is the Taskbar tweaker, which will allow you to take windows of the same application into different taskbar buttons.